PAY a visit to the Biologic Institute and you are liable to get a chilly reception. "We only see people with appointments," states the man who finally responds to my persistent knocks. Then he slams the door on me.

I am standing on the ground floor of an office building in Redmond, Washington, the Seattle suburb best known as home town to Microsoft. What I'm trying to find out is whether the 1-year-old institute is the new face of another industry that has sprung up in the area - the one that has set out to try to prove evolution is wrong.

This is my second attempt to engage in person with scientists at Biologic. At the institute's other facility in nearby Fremont, researchers work at benches lined with fume hoods, incubators and microscopes - a typical scene in this up-and-coming biotech hub. Most of them there proved just as reluctant to speak with a New Scientist reporter.

The reticence cloaks an unorthodox agenda. "We are the first ones doing what we might call lab science in intelligent design," says George Weber, the only one of Biologic's four directors who would speak openly with me. "The objective is to challenge the scientific community on naturalism." Weber is not a scientist but a retired professor of business and administration at the Presbyterian Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington. He heads the Spokane chapter of Reasonstobelieve.org, a Christian organisation that seeks to challenge Darwinism.

The anti-evolution movement's latest response to Darwin is intelligent design (ID). Its fundamental premise is that certain features of living organisms are too complex to have evolved without the direct intervention of an intelligent designer. In ID literature that designer remains cautiously anonymous, but for many proponents he corresponds closely with the God of the Christian Bible. Over the past few years the movement's media-savvy public face has been the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, which has championed intelligent design, claiming it to be a legitimate scientific theory, and supported its key architects. It was Discovery that provided the funding to get the Biologic Institute up and running.

Interesting. Thanks for the post Jason. I think we were all wondering what they were up to.

I just had to cringe when I read that they call themselves "Biologic Institute". However, since the DI appears to be funding this, I would say it is a good thing, since it means less money for them to pump into PR. Funny though, they should have taken the Templeton offer...

Woa, this lab is so secret than ID leaders like Dembski and Behe don't even know about it. Or why wasn't its existence mentionned in Dover, when defendants were asked about the state of "ID research"?

All part of their master plan. they probably all discuss it on their Double-Secret Creationist List. (You know, the one where you're prohibited from discussing the age of the earth.) They were waiting until they had conclusive evidence to crush Neo-Darwinianism, at which point they'll publish their devastating argument that indeed, Goddidit™. At which point all us materialist chance-worshippers will scatter like mice, and Dembski and Davison will take their places as the greatest, most respected scientists in the world. Out of terror, Dawkins will become a fugitive, taking refuge in Iran, Syria and North Korea. Due to his association with this great Cultural Renewal, Dave Scot will successfully run for President in 2008, whereupon his first act will be banning all homos and Judge Jones.

Funny, I always assumed their secret lab would be a scary mountaintop redoubt, like this:

--------------"Rich is just mad because he thought all titties had fur on them until last week when a shorn transvestite ruined his childhood dreams by jumping out of a spider man cake and man boobing him in the face lips." - Erasmus

However, Steve Fuller, a sociologist at the University of Warwick, UK, who testified in favour of ID in the Dover trial, believes the Biologic Institute's activities could help break down barriers between religious people and scientists. "Regardless of whether the science cuts any ice against evolution, one of the virtues is that it could provide a kind of model for how religiously motivated people can go into the lab."

Ronald Numbers, a historian at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who has studied creationism, views it in a different light. The lab's existence will help sustain support within the anti-evolution community, he says. "It will be good for the troops if leaders in the ID movement can claim: 'We're not just talking theory. We have labs, we have real scientists working on this.'"

Well, let's see some output from that lab, before we decide how it'll function.

That you can be a creationist and not get too dirty in lab is as correct as it is that you don't do much in that lab in the first round. The 2nd Law of Laboratorydynamics states that the more you work, the dirtier you get, and that's impossible for the IDists and creationists to circumvent.

they probably all discuss it on their Double-Secret Creationist List (You know, the one where you're prohibited from discussing the age of the earth.)

And if HIV causes AIDS.

Quote

"Regardless of whether the science cuts any ice against evolution, one of the virtues is that it could provide a kind of model for how religiously motivated people can go into the lab."

To do what? Okay, they're in a "lab," but who wants to bet that they'll never come out again?

Wow, Steve Fuller is really full of it. And these people really do not get it! They have created a parody of sciency stuff to look really sciency, but they have no methodology and nothing to work with, and in the meantime true research will leave them in the dust of their Genesis.

This really isn't all that surprising, I don't think, even given the DI's loathing for labwork. The dembski/behe technobabble that they came up with in 1995 no longer works now that it's been aired in court. They now have to come up with some new technobabble if they're to continue at all. Using my amazing psychic powers, I predict that one of the following two things will happen:

1. We will literally never hear from these people ever again

2. In a few years Axe and Dixon will start publishing books full of technobabble under some new banner which is not "Intelligent Design", taking the exact places Behe and Dembksi took under the ID banner. This technobabble will be based on the "research" done at biologic over the next couple years; and since the list of research topics in that article is ALL about evolution and nothing about "design", we can assume the DI STILL hasn't learned their lesson and the technobabble will all be of the form "We did some research, and we discovered this thing about evolution that NO ONE CAN EXPLAIN AND NO ONE WILL EVER BE ABLE TO EXPLAIN. Therefore goddiddit."

Creationist "researcher" no 1 : "Ok, I got the petri dish prepped with Bacreria X and firmly placed on a King James Bible. This will work, I just know it. All systems go, I repeat, all systems go!"

Creationist "researcher" no 2 : "Prayer group reports they are ready and will start praying in 3...2...1..."

*Moment of holy silence...

*Time passes

* People blink

Creationist "researcher" no 1 : "I don't see anything happening. Are you SURE thay are praying?"

Creationist "researcher" no 2 : "I am sure they are praying! Heck, even I am praying..."

Creationist "researcher" no 1 : "Well, nothing is happening, so they must be doing it wrong! Perhaps the King James should be replaced with a New International Version... hhhmmm"

Creationist "researcher" no 3 : "Maybe they should try praying in tongues...."

Creationist "researcher" no 1 :"You mean they were NOT praying in tongues? How do you expect this to work if they don't pray in tongues??? Idiot!"

*Radio communication...

Creationist "researcher" no 2 : "Ok, the Prayer group has actived Praying in Tongues mode. I can hear them from here."

*Time passes, voices rise in religious fervor

Creationist "researcher" no 1 : " Still nothing. What are they praying for?"

Creationist "researcher" no 2 : "How the #### should they know? It's tongues, remember! Nobody but God nows what the #### they are jabbering about"

Creationist "researcher" no 1 : "It's driving me nuts, all this bloddy noise, tell them to shut up. It friggin sounds like a bunch of drunk Swiss yodeling! Even the Bacteria seems uneasy and are scattering to the sides!"

Creationist "researcher" no 3 :Who left the Dakins book on the tabel over there next to the hydrogen container?"

Creationist "researcher" no 1 :"It looks like all the Bacteria died! This is great! It means if you burn atheist books, God... er.. the designer will purify the Earth of these disease causing critters! Praise the Lo... I mean, the Designer. Get me more evil books now!!"

Creationist "researcher" no 1 : "Ok, I got the petri dish prepped with Bacreria X and firmly placed on a King James Bible. This will work, I just know it. All systems go, I repeat, all systems go!"

Creationist "researcher" no 2 : "Prayer group reports they are ready and will start praying in 3...2...1..."

*Moment of holy silence...

*Time passes

* People blink

Creationist "researcher" no 1 : "I don't see anything happening. Are you SURE thay are praying?"

Creationist "researcher" no 2 : "I am sure they are praying! Heck, even I am praying..."

Creationist "researcher" no 1 : "Well, nothing is happening, so they must be doing it wrong! Perhaps the King James should be replaced with a New International Version... hhhmmm"

Creationist "researcher" no 3 : "Maybe they should try praying in tongues...."

Creationist "researcher" no 1 :"You mean they were NOT praying in tongues? How do you expect this to work if they don't pray in tongues??? Idiot!"

*Radio communication...

Creationist "researcher" no 2 : "Ok, the Prayer group has actived Praying in Tongues mode. I can hear them from here."

*Time passes, voices rise in religious fervor

Creationist "researcher" no 1 : " Still nothing. What are they praying for?"

Creationist "researcher" no 2 : "How the #### should they know? It's tongues, remember! Nobody but God nows what the #### they are jabbering about"

Creationist "researcher" no 1 : "It's driving me nuts, all this bloddy noise, tell them to shut up. It friggin sounds like a bunch of drunk Swiss yodeling! Even the Bacteria seems uneasy and are scattering to the sides!"

Creationist "researcher" no 1 : See! It's conclusive. God does not make things evolve! Evolution has just been debunked. Now Johnny, want to go get some meth and a hotel room? (gently strokes his goatee)

--------------Who said that ev'ry wish would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star
Somebody thought of that, and someone believed it
Look what it's done so far

On this Episode of ID the Future, Anika Smith reports on the CSC-supported, independent research facility, Biologic Institute. Headed by Dr. Douglas Axe, Biologic's purpose is to scientifically put the claims of Neo-Darwinian evolution and intelligent design to the test in a laboratory setting. Work is already well under way, with Discovery Institute Fellows conducting biological studies to test each theory's assumptions from an unapologetically ID frame of reference. This should prove to be a huge addition to the cause of intelligent design.

Posted by CSC at 10:19 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Anika, we've been talking about this 'lab' for years. No 'new ID research' yet.

THE cat-and-mouse contest between science and creationism took a new turn this week with the unveiling of a "God lab" ostensibly set up to search for scientific evidence for intelligent design. The move follows a 2005 US federal court ruling that ID is a religious idea not a scientific one.

Quote

“The move follows a US court ruling that ID is a religious idea not a scientific one”

The Biologic Institute in Redmond, Washington, has been shrouded in secrecy since it was established more than a year ago by the Discovery Institute, an organisation which claims ID is a scientific theory (New Scientist, 16 December 2006, p 8). Its existence was finally made public on 10 May, when details of the project were published online at www.biologicinstitute.org.

Most scientists remain unimpressed. "A cursory inspection of its staff roster reveals the same ID creationists whose work has already been critiqued and discredited, with a couple of new faces added for novelty," says Barbara Forrest, a philosopher who studies the creationist movement at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond.

Man you have to go to their website. They are out of their minds crazy and not one bit of it makes any sense.

And they are "teaming up" with Dembski to better understand biology. Why not team up with davescot who clearly has a better understanding of biology than Dembski. Retarded yes, but he's smarter than Dembski.

Man you have to go to their website. They are out of their minds crazy and not one bit of it makes any sense.

And they are "teaming up" with Dembski to better understand biology. Why not team up with davescot who clearly has a better understanding of biology than Dembski. Retarded yes, but he's smarter than Dembski.

But it sounds really sciency. For their target audience, that's all that matters.

--------------Math is just a language of reality. Its a waste of time to know it. - Robert Byers

There isn't any probability that the letter d is in the word "mathematics"... Â The correct answer would be "not even 0" - JoeG

Man you have to go to their website. They are out of their minds crazy and not one bit of it makes any sense.

And they are "teaming up" with Dembski to better understand biology. Why not team up with davescot who clearly has a better understanding of biology than Dembski. Retarded yes, but he's smarter than Dembski.

They hope to win the argument ad doctorum... where Dembski's math degree and philosophy degree qualify him to vomit stuff about evolution. Works for the rubes, and sells books. And you are right about DaveScot knowing more biology than Dr. Dr. Plus, DaveScot can still eat at the Baylor Cafeteria.

--------------Come on Tough Guy, do the little dance of ID impotence you do so well. - Louis to Joe G 2/10

Gullibility is not a virtue - Quidam on Dembski's belief in the Bible Code Faith Healers & ID 7/08

A few key ideas run through all of our work. One is the idea that information is as real and fundamental as physical quantities, like mass or energy. As a measurable substance with real-world effects subject to law-like constraints, information is undeniably the stuff of science. It is also the stuff of technology… which is the stuff of design. Interestingly, the only places in the universe where we see information stored, processed and transmitted in digital code are the complex systems of human design and the even more complex design-like systems of life.

Another key idea is that highly complex functional systems cannot be understood properly just by examining their elementary constituents. The behavior of whole systems might be explained in terms of the behavior of their constituents, but it won’t be understood that way. To grasp the whole picture you have to look at the whole picture.

Both of these ideas suggest a broader principle that we have adopted. As designers, we humans know something about design. So if we really want to know whether the design-like systems in biology were designed, we ought to draw on that knowledge. To take this principle seriously, we need to promote a serious exchange of ideas between biology and the engineering disciplines.

Wooohooo, more engineers being told to fantasise. Thats how you do science for sure.More interestingly, how exactly is information a substance?And if you look at their list of selected publications down the bottom of the page, it seems that Gonzalez' entire output is there.

Huh. I only clicked on that link so I could more knowledgeably berate you about how that was an old article, but it's a new article. Good on you.

Sadly, though, their 'research' is still at the same point...

What else did you expect?

Me, I'm hoping that they build up a big expectation in the press that they're going to cure cancer or something. The internet didn't exist when all this "creation science" was around. Now they're leaving a virtual paper trail, and good! I say.

--------------Which came first: the shimmy, or the hip?

AtBC Poet Laureate

"I happen to think that this prerequisite criterion of empirical evidence is itself not empirical." - Clive

GASP! God's a Chinaman! We've been wrong about it being Jesus all along.

--------------"ALL eight of the "nature" miracles of Jesus could have been accomplished via the electroweak quantum tunneling mechanism. For example, walking on water could be accomplished by directing a neutrino beam created just below Jesus' feet downward." - Frank Tipler, ISCID fellow

Me, I'm hoping that they build up a big expectation in the press that they're going to cure cancer or something. The internet didn't exist when all this "creation science" was around. Now they're leaving a virtual paper trail, and good! I say.

It seems curing cancer is aiming pretty low compared to their obvious objective, which is to use the tools of modern day scientific mimicry to prove the existence of God.